A move for Number 10

I guess I can change the blog date function on this blog but despite looking at the help I haven't yet managed to work it out, consequently my blog posts are still a day behind. So here is yesterday's blog...

There was much excitement today as the Number 10 Meccano Set was moved from Grandpa's house to ours. James is desperate to start building cranes, engines, etc. he is completely enthralled by the pictures in the construction manuals.

Visited friends at lunchtime and we enjoyed watching the chimney sweep at work. We talked about how children of Thea's and James' age had to sweep chimneys for a living in Victorian times. The sweep, who was a lovely guy, told us about the discovery of a skeleton behind a chimney in London. Following investigations by the crime scene detectives it was revealed that the find was the remains of a 150 year old skeleton of a chimney sweep boy still in his chimney sweep attire. One shudders to think how he might have suffered.

Late afternoon saw us walking across the moors for a picnic at the Sphinx. We collected some bilberries on the way but the crop was small, no doubt a result of the recent drought. Tomorrow we will add our pickings to some apples and make a bilberry and apple crumble or perhaps that should be an apple and bilbery crumble. The walk took me back to my school days when I was an active member of the mountaineering club. Many happy Friday evenings were spent rock climbing at this spot. Back then I remember longing for weekends and summer evenings when we could escape to the countryside and leave the boredom of school behind us. I think those trips into the wilderness taught me more about geography than any text book ever did and gave me a deep and lasting love of the natural world that I am eternally grateful for and one which I hope my children are now sharing.

Our crystal solution appeared not to be fully saturated so we heated it in the microwave and dissolved some more alum into the solution. Within a couple of hours crystals were forming on the bottom of the jar.

Thea has started work on a shoe project, so far this has involved making a shoe measure, measuring feet of family members, and producing a cardboard prototype sandal.